Atopic Dermatitis

Miya has atopic dermatitis. At first we brushed it off as rashes because her dad likes kissing her (what with his stubles and all). And that's what people usually say when they see her, they immediately assume it's because we like kissing her on her cheeks. This was I think late April or early May. We always had her wear mittens because she keeps on scratching her face. Then it wasn't just her cheeks, she had it on her left shoulder down to her upper arm. Around the third week of May when we went to Shangri-la, two of our friends noticed it and told me to have it checked. I was instantly alarmed. You see, I try not to be paranoid when it comes to my daughter. Try is the operative word. But really, I try not to jump to worst case scenarios when I see something in/on my daughter. As her pedia said, if she's eating and sleeping well then I don't have to worry about anything. Our pedia told us to use a hypo-allergenic soap for her bath time (we were already using Cetaphil at that time but before it we used Lactacyd Baby Bath) and turn to Perla for washing her clothes (we used to use Cycles). He was weary to prescribe medicines because most of the medicines for rashes have steroids. But it came to a point where Miya wasn't sleeping straight during the nights as she used to, she would wake up almost crying and scratching her face. So we brought her to our dermatologist and the derma concluded that it's atopic dermatitis. To treat the rashes, we need to apply hydrocortisone to the affected area. As per the derma, hydrocortisone is the mildest steroids, so I was a bit hesitant to do this at first. But he convinced me that we only need to apply it for 3-5 days. And then afterwards, we'll change to AI cream. He also prescribed Cetaphil Restoraderm body wash and moisturizer for Miya. The Cetaphil he prescribed is specifically for atopic dermatitis. He also gave antihistamine for the itching.

The hydrocortisone worked like a charm. Unfortunately, Miya's rashes flared up again after a few days after I ate sashimi. I was advised by the derma to go on a hypo-allergenic diet. I can't eat chicken, egg, seafoods, bagoong, dried fish, chocolates, nuts, mangoes, citrus fruits, pineapple, tomatoes, wheat products, strawberry and mongo. The first few days after I was given this list I stumbled and ate some allergenic foods and this will automatically result in Miya's rashes flaring up again. So we had to apply hydrocortisone again. The rashes will be gone for a few days but new ones will come out in a week or two. It was starting to get frustrating. Just this morning, I researched on atopic dermatitis and found this. I was sad for my baby. She didn't have a chance against atopic dermatitis. Apparently it's hereditary and with her dad having asthma and I had eczema as a child until adulthood, she was a likely candidate for this skin disorder. I hope and pray she outgrows this.